Picture Perfect

Yesterday's most was heavy on words, with no picture. Today is going to be mostly pictures with just a few words. I will be posting pictures to: http://picasaweb.google.com/troop346/2009ManyPoint#. Please note, I have about five adults taking pictures and giving them to me. I started this morning with about 500 pictures and have whittled it down to about 400. I apologize for the large number of pictures but: a) I don't have a lot of time right now to be sorting, and b) YOUR kid may be in the picture I leave out. So we will whittle more later, but for now just flip through them and enjoy. We may even have some videos later.
After freetime a bunch of Scouts got together around the campfire ring in the new Scout area and did round after round of the "Sock Song." Everyone finally settled down about 11:00 and went to bed. Got up at the usual time and get breakfast ready: Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns, raspberry-apple juice, and smokey joe links. They appreciated the warm breakfast because it was nippy this morning. The sky is partly cloudy and it is warming up quickly. After breakfast and assembly, everyone was off to their merit badges and other classes.
Last night we had ten of the older boys go off to Flintlock for high adventure overnights: six to the Huck Finn rafts in Flintlock Bay, and four to the Treehouse overnight. They left at 4pm yesterday and we picked them up at 7am this morning. They were a bit chilled and tired, but everyone had a great time.
It's 11:30 and time to head back down south for lunch (Chicken patties on buns, carrots, bug juice, etc.), so that's all for now from Many Point....YIS Jon Yearous

Enjoying the View

This will be a short and typo laden post, since it is via my Blackberry from in front of my tent. No pictures tonight,maybe tomorrow when I head to admin.
The Scouts enjoyed freetime after dinner (and cleanup), going out to some to the camp activities such as rifle, archery, swimming, etc. They were back in camp by 9 and most headed to bed quickly, as they were pretty tired. We had a short 1/2 hour rain shower, but it has been dry since. The temperature has been cooler, but nice. It was about 50 this morning, sunny most of the day, and about 58 at 8:30 pm.
This morning was French Toast and Sausage with milk for breakfast. We had troop assembly at 8:10, camp assembly at 8:30, and three hours of classes in the morning. Lunch was at about 11:30 and was hot dogs, beans, and canned fruit. After lunch some did knots and some gathered wood for Thursday troop campfire. Then everyone headed for and hour of greasy watermelon (think rugby, in the water, with a greased up watermelon for a ball). At 3:00, they had fourth hour classes, and at 4:00 was the IRONMAN race. The canoe, swim, and run. A lot of the boys participated, and I'm told that 346 boys came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
After IRONMAN, it was back to camp for dinner. TACOs tonight, with Spanish Rice, Granny Bread (homemade Sourdough bread), and pudding. Somehow, the adults came up with some BBQ Ribs, too. Because the leadership patrol, and Jr. Leadership patrols are so large (14 & 11) and we have so many adults (11 to 16), we decided to have an adult cooking patrol, instead of having leadership cook for us.
After dinner, we had a non-denominational Vesper service for 1/2 hour, and then free time until 9. The scouts will be pouring back in momentarily. We had our first Board of Review tonight, and Alex H. Is now a Second Class!
I will be heading up to admin tomorrow and will try to post pictures and update more then via the highspeed link. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp. YIS. Jon Yearous

LIVE - From Voyageur!

We're here! We made it! We're still alive! The bus arrived at Many Point at about 1:00 after a quick stop in Park Rapids for a quick last lunch in civilization. The Scouts all arrived and quickly changed into their suits and headed to the beach for swim qualifications. When they were done with that, they headed back to camp to set up their dining flys, their tents, and their cots and to get their personal gear situated. The food arrived at about 5:00 and the boys had their first opportunity to cook their own food (cheese burgers, chips, and fruit). The troop guides were very busy instructing the new scout patrols on how to st up their equipment, cook their food, and most importantly, how the clean the dishes. After dinner the Scouts and new parents went for a guded tour of the Voyageur Camp, including the brand new shower house. Then they had some in camp free time before the camp wide welcome camp fire. During the free time, it sprinkled lightly and stopped just before the campfire at 9:30. Fortunately the rain held off until after we got back to the campground, but then the sky opened up. It rained for several hours and had stopped by morning. All of the tents stayed up and ironically the only tarps that fell over were the Leadership tarp and the Adult's tarp. Everyone stayed pretty dry. Today has been mostly sunny, relatively cool, and a nice breeze has come up to help with the bugs. The mosquitos have been about as agressive as I have ever seen them, but the bug spray helps to keep them at bay.

Fortunately, the breakfast Monday morning is very simple, cereal, poptarts, milk. Troop assembly and announcements were at 8:10 (see the picture above) and the Campwide assembly was at 8:30. Then the boys were all off the merit badge classes. The first year Scouts were taking Fish & Wildlife Management/mammal Studies first hour and then they were off the First Class Adventure 2nd and 3rd hour. The older Scouts were all off to various other merit badges.

At 11:30, they were back to camp for lunch. We had Ham & Cheese sandwiches, Frito Chips, and carrots for lunch. Then the Scouts assembled at 1:00 for troop activities. These include Ethics in Action Team Building, Archery, etc. I headed up Noeth to the admin building to install the new front counter logo and to update the blog. It's about 3:15 now. At 4:00 the boys will be off to swimming or afternoon merit badges classes (the new Scouts will be attending First Class Aquatics). Some may have a troop activity at 5:00, but everyone will be back to camp for Dinner (Mac & Cheese with Ham I think), and then they will be off to free time from 7-9. I suspect most Scouts (and adults) will be hitting the sack early tonight.

That's all from Many Point for now. Someone will be updating the Blog over the next two weeks.

YIS...Jon Yearous

The Adventure Begins - Soon

Sunday morning at 6:30am we will be gathering at All Saints to prepare for our adventure to Many Point Scout Camp for another summer. As you can see from the picture above, Troop 346 has added to the Welcome to Voyageur sign. The trailer is all packed and we're just about ready to go. When you're packing remember that a scout should be prepared...for anything.

Keep coming back to this blog for updates over the next two weeks.